Why do YOU build pedals?

[BuddytheReow]

This is more taking a snapshot of the group here than anything else.

I started by build journey just to see what all the hype a tube screamer had to offer. Then I wanted to see what a BMP was all about. Then a Rat. Then delay/modulation. The list goes on.

Now in my build journey, I've just about built the pedals I want, but am still curious about some of the new releases. Enter the breadboard. The past year and a half for me has been about practicing/playing more than anything else with a couple pedals thrown in there to chip away at my backlog. I'm sure if someone kicked off a design contest it wouldn't be too hard to twist my arm about it

I take a look at my collection and noticed the progress I've made over the years and am now toying with the idea of selling many of them and rebuilding to work on new skills.

Why do you build?

 

[dan.schumaker]

I just like to build, come up with something new

 

[fontoponto]

Collecting likes, the social media disease. No self-confidence

 

[Nostradoomus]

thanks for the booze money option

 

[Blooze]

I just build for something to do. Heck, I usually only play a pedal I built a few times at most to see if it works. When I do play, which is very seldom anymore, I just plug straight into the amp anyway.

 

[jwyles90]

I've been playing guitar since I was a wee teenager, but never really got into pedals until I was in my early 30s. Once I started messing around with them a little more intentionally I got curious about what the process of building one would be like and what was going on inside them. Bought a couple BYOC kits to see if I'd enjoy the process and was immediately hooked. There's something so satisfying about putting them together and how tactile and creative and artistic it can be, even if I'm just plopping resistors into place.

It's been a few years of building now for me, and it's been really cool to see how my builds have progressed and gotten tidier (sometimes) as I learn more and more about the process of building.

 

[Caedarn]

I got into building pedals because I wanted to try and recreate sounds from guitarists and songs that I love, and also because I like to build things. I've found I really enjoy everything about pedal building, from analyzing what parts I need (with my ridiculously complex spreadsheet), soldering, doing the graphics, etc. The only part I could do without is the troubleshooting

 

[VanWhy]

I think i can check like 4 or 5 of those boxes

 

[EisengesisFX]

Coupla things for me:

• I'm 100% uneducated on the science and math of electricity, but when my mind is curious I get fucking fixated
• My Photoshop skills are from a media arts class I took over 20 years ago, but those minimal abilities help me make pedals that both sound and (even inevitably jankily so) look
• There's three successive stages of validation: successful wiring, successful graphic application/pedal assembly, and then however much I use the pedal in question in my own creative endeavors

If it matters, I've only been building since summer 2024.

 

[BuddytheReow]

alright. you can vote for as many items as you'd like. I don't think there's really ONE reason why we all build.

 

[Einzeln]

It is fun to build and to give away. It started with the search of the ideal OD for a Vox. There are a few, I discovered. The fun is the building itself, creating. Looking forward to building. Therapeutic you may say.
And not untill recently I wanted to understand schematics. So now I am trying to repair some pedals. I am thinking about making eurorack modules as well. Challenging myself. Better soldering skills.

 

[CheapSuitG]

My wife started her masters program last fall, gave me copious amounts of free time. Was chatting with a friend who is a NASA engineer, he is a newer guitar player and wanted to design his own circuit, looked to me for advice on how it should sound. He suggested I start building pedals from PCBs and I stumbled across this place.

 

[Guilherme Collateral]

I started out fixing a handmade pedal I got here in Brasil 18 or so years ago, did as a hobby for a few years as I was graduating in History and it ended up being my full time job. I build pedals professionally for 10+ years and still find lots of joy building every single one of them and also do it as a hobby (because my other hobby - collecting Vinyl - is a lot more expensive )

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

Things change over time.

First build - I have a soldering iron for guitar building, might as well build a fuzz

Middle of the journey- MOAR TOANZ FOR PIKACHU!

Recent builds - If you don't finish this pedal soon, you won't take first blood on the build report.

 

[drgonzo1969]

I started building pedals because one of my homies one day during covid said “YOU could probably build pedals” after I had fixed the output on his SG and sprayed some deoxit on the pots on his Fender RocPro… it spiraled out of control from there...

 

[jcpst]

When I was in high school, we had a “beginning electronics” class. After some basics, we passed around a catalog and picked out a kit. I saw “guitar distortion”- It was basically a little smokey amp. That was fun. The other pedal I built in high school was an A/B box in a comically huge 1590C

 

[PunchySunshine]

I started with modding my crybaby for true bypass with instructions from stinkfoot. Then I built an Amazon Klon. Then I found PedalPCB and the addiction is REAL..

 

[Gordo]

When I was on the road I could afford very little and it got much worse once my gear got stolen. Was very therapeutic to be able to recreate a lot of old pedals many years into getting a "real" job and starting to play again for my own enjoyment.

And of course once the hook was set...

 

[KR Sound]

First of all, I just love to make stuff. Secondly, it makes me so frickin happy when people get a pedal I make and they just absolutely love it. It may not be any better or cheaper than one off the shelf, definitely not, but it’s theirs, it’s custom, unique, and personal.

 

[owlexifry]

i never used to be a gear nerd. and i was never really into pedals either. just a drive in front of an amp and that's it.
but then i started building things.

it started with a stewmac 2204 amp kit.
that was it, the box had opened, I had to know more.
curiosity is a strong force.

then i found the pedalpcb website. (ironically from a youtuber roasting the ad copy from horizon devices precision drive)
felt like a had stumbled upon a gold mine. (i had no idea vendors like ppcb even existed).
so many pedals/circuits i had never heard of - new, old, vintage, modern.

suddenly the gear world became very interesting to me, mostly in regards to 'how the sausage is made', but also in the discovery of effects that I would otherwise have no interest or business using for what i normally play.
in a way, this has forced/allowed me to open up to so many things i would have not experienced if i never built anything.

realistically, i hardly play the pedals i've built.
but that's ok.
the real pull of building things for me is diving into the world of circuits, discovering the aetiology of these devices, the great artists that used them over the years, and how inevitably derivative everything has become over time.

since starting, i probably didn't need to build more than x10 pedals.
for live and most home/jam use, i only really ever have a drive, chorus, phaser, and a delay on my board.
with the options i've built, i guess that allows for different iterations of that basic layout.
but i have no idea what im gonna do with all these pedals i never play.